Tom Wolf keeps saying, “as long as I’m governor.” It’s a terribly important qualifier.


Hong Kong

Ishaan Tharoor and Karina Tsui, “China’s Xi ushers in the end of global Hong Kong,” Washington Post, July 1, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/07/01/hong-kong-global-handover-anniversary-beijing-china/


Fossil fuels

Northeast (especially Pittsburgh)


That “[a]s long as I’m governor” part is problematic. It’s not at all clear that anybody who isn’t a white Christian nationalist, that is, arch-Trumpist Doug Mastriano, can win the Pennsylvania governor’s race this year.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor, has vowed to remove Pennsylvania from RGGI [the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative], saying that the move [to join it] would cost Pennsylvania jobs and lead to higher energy prices. . . .

Mastriano has also supported efforts to strip the DEP [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] of the power to implement RGGI and sought to allow oil and gas leases on state parks and forests. In the past, Mastriano has called global warming “fake science.”[1]

Mastriano may be an outlier even among white Christian nationalists and Republicans generally, but he isn’t that much of an outlier, and he is not at all an outlier in Pennsylvania.

Ryan Deto, “What the Supreme Court’s EPA ruling means for carbon emissions in Pittsburgh and the state,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 30, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/regional/what-the-supreme-courts-epa-ruling-means-for-carbon-emissions-in-pittsburgh-and-pa/


Gilead

Joe Biden’s bipartisan delusions

Ronald Brownstein writes in the Atlantic:

[Joe] Biden’s earlier tepid reaction [to the overturning of Roe v. Wade] had drawn loud alarms across the party. Yesterday, Representative Ted Lieu of California, a co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, told me he was “mystified” as to why Biden had not endorsed a filibuster exception, which is the most plausible option to reverse the Court’s decision because it would theoretically enable this Senate, with its bare 50-seat Democratic majority, to pass a law codifying Roe.

These complaints echoed the frustration of voting-rights activists last year, when Biden was slow to resist the broad red-state push to pass laws making it more difficult to vote. And they recall the impatience among legal analysts who have questioned the pace of the Justice Department’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. Eventually, Biden did back a filibuster exception for voting rights, and the House January 6 hearings may soon galvanize the Justice Department’s investigation.

Even so, many Democrats share a sense that on all these issues, abortion included, Biden and his team have been following, not leading. . . . The growing chorus among the president’s internal critics is that even if Biden was the right man for beating Trump, he has become the wrong man for combatting Trumpism.[2]

The trouble here is that too many Democratic fingers are pointing at Joe Biden, rather than at their party as a whole,[3] which has functioned effectively to enable those turning the United States into a white Christian nationalist autocracy,[4] which I’ve been calling Gilead,[5] after that country south of Canada in Margaret Atwood’s novel.[6]

Brownstein’s article implictly accepts a bipartisan paradigm,[7] where I disagree that the Democrats can ever be the answer. I see them as hopelessly compromised[8] enablers, effectively traitors,[9] albeit in a context in which it is certainly not only Joe Biden who has run out of time, not even only the Democrats who have run out of time, but the even very minimal semblance of electoral representation[10] in a constitutional oligarchy[11] that is out of time.[12]

All that said, I would urge you to read Brownstein’s article in full. He might only be analyzing one part of the problem, but within that limitation, it’s a solid analysis.

Ronald Brownstein, “Is Biden a Man Out of Time?” Atlantic, June 30, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/biden-roe-response-democrats-2024-election/661449/

Gun nuttery

I look at the violence in Pittsburgh and I just don’t understand how anyone can be so delusional as to imagine that adding more guns to the mix will reduce the bloodshed. It’s a complete contradiction to me.

So my reaction to gun nuts suing to bring more guns into Washington, D.C.,[13] is first, to be absolutely flummoxed, and second, to think of it as enabling militia groups, enabling another coup attempt. It’s absolute madness.

I realize that there is a denial among Donald Trump’s followers that the January 6, 2021, coup attempt was anywhere near as serious as it was. But that only reinforces the delusional character of this lawsuit. And, following the logic of this suit, how long before we’re back to allowing guns on commercial airliners?

Paul Duggan, “Gun owners sue D.C., demanding to carry firearms on Metro,” Washington Post, June 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/30/lawsuit-guns-dc-metro-buses/


Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “1 killed, 2 injured in overnight shooting in Hazelwood,” July 1, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2022/07/01/pittsburgh-shooting-hazelwood-johnston-avenue-police-ems-investigation/stories/202207010080

Infrastructure


The closure of the Swindell Bridge comes as a relief to me and, I’m sure, to many nearby residents.[14] The road surface was pockmarked with potholes, suggesting that salt water (from the salt used to melt snow) was likely reaching the substructure; one part of the bridge was reduced to a single lane. This bridge, frankly, terrified me. Its closure means I will no longer be required to cross it.

The bridge crosses Interstate 279, the Parkway North, and connects two poor-to-working class neighborhoods, including a major Allegheny County slum complex; I was certain that the latter accounted for its neglect.

Cody Burzynski, a 32-year-old commercial carpenter from Ross, said Friday a piece of debris hit his vehicle while he was driving under the span with his wife in June. . . .

Mr. Burzynski didn’t report the incident to the city because he “knew nothing would get done about it,” he said while alluding to the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse.

“Basically, if it would have hit the windshield it would have went right through the safety glass and hurt either one of us or worse,” he added.[15]

Jon Moss, “Pa. Commonwealth Court permanently blocks Gov. Tom Wolf’s bridge tolling plan,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 30, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2022/06/30/pa-bridge-tolling-plan-blocked-commonwealth-court-judges-governor-tom-wolf-penndot/stories/202206300111

Andrew Goldstein, “Swindell Bridge shut down after construction work causes debris to fall onto I-279,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 1, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/07/01/swindell-bridge-shut-down-after-construction-work-causes-debris-to-fall-onto-i279/stories/202207010097

Megan Guza, “Swindell Bridge on Pittsburgh’s North Side closed after falling debris,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 1, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/swindell-bridge-on-pittsburghs-north-side-closed-after-falling-debris/


Artificial idiocy

The Wall Street Journal fails to offer any detail[16] as to why artificial idiocy is still idiotic.[17]

Karen Hao and Miles Kruppa, “Tech Giants Pour Billions Into AI, but Hype Doesn’t Always Match Reality,” Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-giants-pour-billions-into-ai-but-hype-doesnt-always-match-reality-11656508394


  1. [1]Ryan Deto, “What the Supreme Court’s EPA ruling means for carbon emissions in Pittsburgh and the state,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 30, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/regional/what-the-supreme-courts-epa-ruling-means-for-carbon-emissions-in-pittsburgh-and-pa/
  2. [2]Ronald Brownstein, “Is Biden a Man Out of Time?” Atlantic, June 30, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/biden-roe-response-democrats-2024-election/661449/
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Democrats and contradiction,” Not Housebroken, June 24, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/biden-roe-response-democrats-2024-election/661449/
  4. [4]David Benfell, “The Democrats as the danger within, enabling the Republicans,” June 24, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/14/the-democrats-as-the-danger-within-enabling-the-republicans/; David Benfell, “All hail palliative ‘solutions,’” Not Housebroken, June 26, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/26/all-hail-palliative-solutions/
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Start changing the border signs: ‘Welcome to Gilead,’” Not Housebroken, June 24, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/18/start-changing-the-border-signs-welcome-to-gilead/
  6. [6]Margaret Atwood, Handmaid’s Tale (New York: Anchor, 1998).
  7. [7]Ronald Brownstein, “Is Biden a Man Out of Time?” Atlantic, June 30, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/biden-roe-response-democrats-2024-election/661449/
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Democrats and contradiction,” Not Housebroken, June 24, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/biden-roe-response-democrats-2024-election/661449/
  9. [9]David Benfell, “The Democrats as the danger within, enabling the Republicans,” June 24, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/14/the-democrats-as-the-danger-within-enabling-the-republicans/
  10. [10]David Benfell, “My 2024 forecast,” Not Housebroken, June 21, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/10/my-2024-forecast/
  11. [11]David Benfell, “A constitutional oligarchy: Deconstructing Federalist No. 10,” Not Housebroken, July 3, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/22/a-constitutional-oligarchy-deconstructing-federalist-no-10/
  12. [12]David Benfell, “Swimming against a stronger tide,” Not Housebroken, June 27, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/27/swimming-against-a-stronger-tide/
  13. [13]Paul Duggan, “Gun owners sue D.C., demanding to carry firearms on Metro,” Washington Post, June 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/30/lawsuit-guns-dc-metro-buses/
  14. [14]Andrew Goldstein, “Swindell Bridge shut down after construction work causes debris to fall onto I-279,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 1, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/07/01/swindell-bridge-shut-down-after-construction-work-causes-debris-to-fall-onto-i279/stories/202207010097; Megan Guza, “Swindell Bridge on Pittsburgh’s North Side closed after falling debris,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 1, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/swindell-bridge-on-pittsburghs-north-side-closed-after-falling-debris/
  15. [15]Andrew Goldstein, “Swindell Bridge shut down after construction work causes debris to fall onto I-279,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 1, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/07/01/swindell-bridge-shut-down-after-construction-work-causes-debris-to-fall-onto-i279/stories/202207010097
  16. [16]Karen Hao and Miles Kruppa, “Tech Giants Pour Billions Into AI, but Hype Doesn’t Always Match Reality,” Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-giants-pour-billions-into-ai-but-hype-doesnt-always-match-reality-11656508394
  17. [17]David Benfell, “Our new Satan: artificial idiocy and big data mining,” Not Housebroken, April 5, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/01/13/our-new-satan-artificial-idiocy-and-big-data-mining/

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